D. H. Lawrence 
Lost Girl 

A classic Lawrence novel of sensual awakening and the yearning for freedom, and winner of the 1920 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The daughter of well-to-do trades people in the fictional mining town of Woodhouse, Alvina Houghton struggles to find excitement in her provincial surroundings and worries that she is condemned to become an old maid. After plans to elope with her lover to Australia and train as a nurse in London lead to nothing, she joins a traveling theater group and succumbs to the charms of the dark, passionate Italian Ciccio. (Goodreads)